Goldman Sachs Asset Management will invest $325 million in iSpot.tv as the Seattle-area company loosens industry stalwart Nielsen’s longtime hold on the market for measuring TV ads across broadcast and streaming platforms.
The deal, which comes a decade after iSpot was founded, will give Goldman Sachs a “significant minority stake” in the company, according to an announcement Wednesday morning.
The investment is believed to value iSpot at more than $1 billion, making it the latest Seattle-area tech company to achieve “unicorn” status.
As part of the funding announcement, iSpot disclosed that it has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenues. Based in Bellevue, Wash., the privately held company now has more than 350 employees. Prior to this deal, it had raised a total of $58 million.
Goldman’s investment follows NBCUniversal’s decision to pilot iSpot’s real-time ad measurement tools and data for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Super Bowl LVI, and other programming in the first quarter. In addition, NBCUniversal made iSpot’s data standard for its negotiations with advertisers for the 2022-23 TV season.
WarnerMedia and Paramount also piloted iSpot for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Netflix’s recent indication that it will expand beyond subscriptions into ad-supported content illustrates the growth potential of the broader market for broadcast and streaming TV advertising.
“The company is at a great juncture right now,” said iSpot CEO Sean Muller in an interview with GeekWire. “We thought that this would be a great time for us to raise [funding], and prepare the company for the next level of growth.”
This next phase for iSpot will also mean “hopefully going public sometime over the next couple of years,” Muller said.
Nielsen Holdings, which has struggled to make the shift to modern tech and streaming platforms, announced a deal in March to be acquired for $16 billion by a private equity group, led by an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management.
Muller said iSpot will use the funding to invest further in product development and engineering, as well as sales and marketing, accelerating its hiring. The company has offices New York City, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv, in addition to its headquarters in the Crossroads area of Bellevue.
The company has made a series of acquisitions over the past two years, most recently buying Tunity, which tracks consumer viewing habits in public locations. Last year, iSpot acquired DRMetrix and Ace Metrix, both TV ad measuring companies.
The specific size of the stake to be taken by Goldman Sachs was not disclosed by the companies, other than calling it a significant minority investment.
Announcing the deal, iSpot said Goldman joins Insight Partners and Madrona Venture Group as “primary investors” in the company. However, Goldman was the sole investor in this round. As a result of the deal, Goldman will also participate on the iSpot board.
